In 1992, a gang leader was shot dead by a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe in Kroonstad. The murder weapon was then hidden on Antjie Krog s stoep. In Begging to Be Black, Krog begins by exploring her position in this controversial case. From there the book ranges widely in scope, both in time reaching back to the days of Basotho king Moshoeshoe and in space as we follow Krog s experiences as a research fellow in Berlin, far from the Africa that produced her. Begging to Be Black forms the third part of a trilogy that Antjie Krog (unknowingly) began with Country of My Skull and continued with A Change of Tongue. Mixing memoir and history, philosophy and poetry, the book is stylistically experimental and personally courageous. Begging to Be Black is a welcome addition to Krog s own oeuvre and to South African literary non-fiction.
Antjie Krog was born in Kroonstad and grew up on a farm in the Free State. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed Country of My Skull, which won the Alan Paton Award and the Olive Schreiner Award, among others. She has published a number of volumes of poetry, several of which have been translated into European languages and have won local and foreign prizes. Down to My Last Skin, a collection of her poetry in English translation, won the inaugural FNB Vita Poetry Award in 2000. She is also widely recognised for her outstanding reporting during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Krog is married to architect John Samuel, and is the mother of four children.
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